


what survives, what thrives

by shanlyrical



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Shatterpoint - Matthew Stover
Genre: Gen, Master & Padawan Relationship(s), References to Shatterpoint novel by Matthew Strover, Vaapad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-04-04 04:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14012433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanlyrical/pseuds/shanlyrical
Summary: With the help of an old Master and a new Padawan learner, Depa Billaba finds renewed purpose after Haruun Kal.





	what survives, what thrives

**Author's Note:**

  * For [countessofbiscuit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/countessofbiscuit/gifts).



> Happy May the 4th!

Her lightsaber hummed and cast its steady emerald radiance onto the high walls of the training hall.

For the first time since her ignominious return from Haruun Kal, Jedi Master Depa Billaba opened herself to the dark side of the Force.

Then, she began to move.

She had been among the Temple’s most gifted, the only Padawan learner her Master had ever trusted with the secret – some said heretical – techniques of Vaapad.

She had trained an apprentice to Knighthood. She had attained her Mastery. She had been seated on the Jedi High Council. She had led Kaminoan clone armies into battle.

And then, she had thrown it all away. Into the jungle.

Depa twisted and slashed and thrust at invisible enemies advancing upon her from all sides, her loose brown robes swirling around her, her braids whipping her face.

Her demons. They surrounded her, and they were _inside_ her as well.

The vote had been unanimous to remove her permanently from the Council. Mace had delivered the sorry news in person, but she had already known.

Everything she had worked for…gone.

The darkness surged and flowed through her. She let it in, let it fill her… Then she channeled it into her saber arm, her balletic footwork; she poured it all out again into the fight. This was the dervish dance of Vaapad, and she could take her sorrows, her indignities, her regrets, and transmute them into pure kinetic energy—

Depa spun, and green crashed into purple, a shower of plasma sparks.

 _Mace_.

“Depa, this is not the way.”

“Master.” She extinguished her saber blade and bowed deeply at the waist.

“Listen to me, Depa,” Mace said. No preliminaries, no niceties. So very Jedi Master Mace Windu. “You survive, and for as long as you survive, you have a purpose here. If not to lead, then—”

“—to teach,” Depa finished.

“And to be a better Master to your next Padawan than I was to you.” Mace held up his hand to forestall her automatic protest. “No teacher should have to survive to see a student fall into darkness.”

She knew exactly what he meant. Of course he was right.

* * *

Depa watched Caleb Dume intently. After three dozen repetitions, his footing and posture had become poor, the form shamefully sloppy.

These techniques should have been second-nature to her new Padawan learner by now.

Yet they weren’t. His defenses were down.

Depa opened herself up to the dark side of the Force, and between the space of one breath and the next, Caleb was disarmed, and the tip of Depa’s lightsaber was threatening to singe the delicate skin of his neck.

“What the—?! I’ve never seen anything like—” Caleb croaked.

“That was Vaapad, and Soresu would have protected you from it…had your technique been perfected.”

Caleb looked contrite for but a moment before he forgot humility in the face of a youngling’s excitement. His cheeks were flushed; his eyes shone. “Vaapad? _The_ Vaapad?! Master Windu’s secret lightsaber form?! Are you going to teach me to—”

“No,” Depa interrupted, calm but implacably firm. “Vaapad will die with Master Windu, Caleb. It is too dangerous a technique to pass on. That knowledge may save your life one day, it’s true, but sometimes to win the day it’s not enough merely to survive.”

“What do you mean, Master?”

“I mean,” Depa said with a warm, wistful smile, “that I don’t just want you to survive. I want you to thrive.”

Caleb’s brow furrowed in confusion. He may not have understood what she meant yet, but he would. Eventually. When he had a student of his own to teach.

“And you will. You will.”


End file.
